FROM THE GREENHOUSE

Here's a funny story about this album. When it was released, the title track "From The Greenhouse" got a fair amount of airplay on the local AOR station. The hook in the song sounded like it was lifted directly from Pink Floyd's "Have A Cigar". I was managing a popular record/CD store in Cambridge, Mass. at the time. After the first dozen or so customers came in asking for "the new Pink Floyd album", and meaning this one, I displayed the album under a sign saying "Not Pink Floyd".

Anyway, this at the time was another comeback album, with guitarist Rick Witkowski rejoining the band for the first time since "White Music" back in 1980.

The results weren't bad. Not great, but listenable. But very derivative. The lyrics are pure Palumbo. Socio-political sarcasm, with a lot of humor. At time very poignant, at times very funny. The music however is pulled from a variety of sources. The title track, as noted above, sound like Floyd, not only in the hook, but also a guitar section sounds like "Brain Damage", and the whole feel of the song is Floyd-like.

In "The Frozen Rain", "All The Things We Do, and "Can I Play For You (Ian's Song)" you could play a game of find-the-Beatles-lick. While each is a nice song, the Beatles references are too blatant. And "Monkey Boy" sound like David Bowie, right down to Palumbo trying to sound like Bowie at times.

The band even rehashes the "Crack The Sky Secret Rock Rhythm", used since their very first album, most notably on "Hold On", "Lighten Up McGraw" and many others throughout the years.

For what it is, this is not a bad album. But only slightly prog.